With a $40 billion voter-approved transit investment being deployed over the next 20 years, the Los Angeles County transit system expansion will add 102 miles of rail transit and almost 100 new stations, while creating 400,000 new jobs. While the City of Los Angeles is ground zero for much of this change - at the core of the transit network and with 113 current and planned stations - 63 other jurisdictions across the County will also enjoy frequent transit, making the scale of change as record-breaking as the pace of change.

$code
Chairman Denham, Ranking Member Brown, and members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I am John Robert Smith, Co-Chair of Transportation for America, the country’s broadest and most diverse transportation coalition. Our members hail from the fields of transportation, housing, environment, public health, real estate, safety, and social equity, representing more than 500 different organizations. I am also the President and CEO of Reconnecting America, a national nonprofit that integrates transportation and community development. Reconnecting America is the managing partner of the Center for Transit-Oriented Development, which conducts research and promotes best practices in development along transit lines.
I would like to thank the Subcommittee for holding this hearing on the role of innovative finance in intercity passenger rail. Functional, safe, and efficient transportation systems are one of the cornerstones upon which this…

Reconnecting America, as a partner in Livability Solutions, has been selected to provide technical assistance to the Seattle Department of Planning & Development and Valley Metro in Phoenix as part of a grant from the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Sustainable Communities under their Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program.

Reconnecting America has completed an analysis of the economic and workforce development impacts of Denver's Southeast Rail Line and concluded that the 6-year-old light rail line has only supplemented what is already there, instead of acting as a driver of economic opportunity for residents of the region. This is the first in a series of reports by the Mile High Connects examining the opportunities and challenges of connecting middle-skill workers to economic opportunities through improved transit service and is meant to inform the planning of current and future transit corridors in the Denver region.

Reconnecting America was honored to learn that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized the Bay Area Transit-Oriented Affordable Housing Fund (TOAH) as an honorable mention recipient of the 2012 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement in the category of Programs and Policies for TOAH’s work to provide financing for affordable housing development and community services throughout the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.

Reconnecting America today released Are We There Yet? Creating Complete Communities for 21st Century America, an ambitious report that tracks progress in America’s regions toward a vision of complete communities.

Reconnecting America President & CEO John Robert Smith and Chief of Staff Allison Brooks have co-authored “Transit-Oriented Development Is Good Community Development,” which explores how, in this new era, we have the opportunity to redefine and build communities that are well supported by quality transportation systems and that will serve the life needs of today’s grandparents and tomorrow’s grandchildren.